


under my skin

by llien



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Also I'll die on the hill of Vanitas having chronic pain so like that's in there but barely a line, Bodyswap, Canon Universe, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Implied Relationships, Inspired by Fanart, or something
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-06
Updated: 2019-09-06
Packaged: 2020-10-11 08:57:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20543513
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/llien/pseuds/llien
Summary: “This is nuts!” Vanitas said with a delighted laugh, and like that he, well, he sounded like—“I’m going tobreakyour wrist,” Sora snarled, and Vanitas blinked, before grinning something evil-like.“You sure? It’syourwrist, ya know,” and as if to prove he didn’t have a single shred of self-preservation, Vanitas squeezed Sora’s cheeks to make him look like a blowfish.Or, the one where Sora and Vanitas accidentally swap bodies.





	under my skin

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by and for dear Mim, who drew this comic! Thank you for letting me write it and for being an amazing friend ♥ I hope you like it!
>
>> 🔄 bodyswap  
cue kairi laughing in the distance because riku cant tell [pic.twitter.com/PF5lSheyes](https://t.co/PF5lSheyes)
>> 
>> — ✄肉丸 (@rouwan) [September 3, 2019](https://twitter.com/rouwan/status/1168715653965963264?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

"Stop looking so stupid with my face," Sora snapped.

Vanitas pouted— _ pouted! _ "It's the same face and I don't look stupid!"

"You always look like that," Sora sniffed, jabbing Vanitas in the nose hard enough to make him cross-eyed, "like you're half-asleep and no one's upstairs." He reached over and with a curled knuckle knocked Vanitas on the temple hard enough that Riku could hear it.

"Now you're just being mean," Vanitas said as he slapped Sora’s hand away, pout deepening, and Riku was very, very confused. 

He stood in one of the Mystical Tower’s lounge rooms, Sora and Vanitas inadvertently involving him when he’d pulled Sora aside to try and ask what the hell was going on. Vanitas shot forward and grabbed Sora’s cheeks, pinching and stretching them with wonder in his eyes and Riku rubbed at his own because _ surely _this was a dream.

“It’s still so weird!” Vanitas thrilled.

_ “Enough!” _Sora grabbed Vanitas’ wrists and tried to wrench him off only to hiss as Vanitas dug his fingers in.

“It’s _ my _ face!”

“Those are _ my _hands!”

Riku watched in aghast confusion as Vanitas grinned, but it wasn’t mean or sneering, it was bright, cheeks dimpling like he’d never seen before, eyes curving as he cupped Sora’s face, thumbs dragging Sora’s mouth into weird shapes. It was _Sora _who was scowling something fierce, the coldest blue fire Riku had ever seen in his eyes as he wrestled to get Vanitas’ hands from his face. 

Riku had come back from a mission and had only been fresh off the gummiship when Vanitas had suddenly passed by him with a cheery greeting. Baffled, he’d turned to where he could see Sora in front of the tower, as if waiting, only to be greeted by an immense scowl. And now that he’d gotten over the shock of being _ scowled _ at by _ Sora, _Riku still couldn’t make sense of what was going on as he stood in the same room with both of them again.

They stood close to each other, still mirror images with the colors all wrong, and Riku was wondering if he’d somehow stumbled into a waking dream, or gone to Wonderland, or maybe someone had a cast a spell, because he’d never seen Sora scowl like that, or Vanitas smile… well, ever.

“This is nuts!” Vanitas said with a delighted laugh, and like that he, well, he sounded like—

“I’m going to _ break _your wrist,” Sora snarled, and Vanitas blinked, before grinning something evil-like.

“You sure? It’s _ your _wrist, ya know,” and as if to prove he didn’t have a single shred of self-preservation, Vanitas squeezed Sora’s cheeks to make him look like a blowfish. 

Sora hesitated, and Vanitas crowed with triumphant laughter. Then they began to fuss and tumble and tousle and Riku had finally had enough, somehow getting between the tangle of limbs scrambling to pin the other to wrench Sora up by the collar. Sora immediately flexed and arched, elbow coming up and _ woah _ that’d _ definitely _been aiming for his jaw. He shoved Sora away at arm’s length, still holding onto the scruff of his shirt while he leaned down to hook two fingers into Vanitas’ turtle-neck, dragging him similarly up.

“Okay, seriously,” Riku panted, arms straining from keeping Sora away from Vanitas, who already had a scratch across his nose, “what’s going on?” Keeping Sora still was proving much harder, and Riku dropped his grip to drag his hand down Sora’s back, grasping his wrist instead. Sora stiffened, something Riku noticed but was too distracted to really pay attention to at the moment.

“Riku!” Vanitas lit up, and Riku swallowed dryly, lips parting as he blinked worriedly between Sora and Vanitas. Sure they weren’t enemies _ now, _but Vanitas had never warmed up to him, or to anyone for that matter. 

He was still disturbingly a lot like Sora, which gave off all sorts of confusing signals in Riku. He was the exact same height, his head barely clearing Riku’s shoulder, and he had the same sun-kissed skin, even the _ freckles _Riku had long since memorized on Sora’s face was there. His heavy lashes framed upturned eyes that still shined even when golden, and all of it told Riku this was similar enough to his best friend to warrant teasing and hair ruffling, even when Riku knew from the bite of his tongue that all the similarities was only skin-deep.

He glanced at Sora again, beseeching him for some kind of clue, and Sora snorted, rolling his eyes. For a moment, Riku’s stomach dropped, feeling his expression contort into something stricken because Sora had never acted like that with Riku, and it hurt in a hollow, empty way. 

“Idiot,” Sora called, voice cold and nothing like his usual warmth. Strangely enough, Vanitas turned back to him. “He doesn’t get it.”

“Oh!” Vanitas laughed, wriggling around in Riku’s grasp until Riku dropped him too. “We switched bodies!”

Sora snatched his wrist free of Riku’s slack grasp and— _ oh. _

_ Oh, that made a lot of sense. _

Vanitas-in-Sora barked a derisive, amused laugh. “Slow, much?”

Sora-in-Vanitas did his usual pout-scowl, reaching over to jab his knuckle in Vanitas’ arm. “Don’t be a jerk.”

Riku flushed because okay, _ wow, _he was kinda slow on the uptake there, and now that he knew it was so, so obvious. Sora (in Vanitas’ body, and it was easier to keep track of them that way if Riku only thought of the contents and not the skin) moved closer to Vanitas, peering up at him with bright, curious eyes. Vanitas looked back at him, a downswept gaze that made him seem shyer, somehow, while wearing Sora’s face.

“Wow,” Sora breathed, smile blooming again, and like the foolhardy optimist he was, his hand came up again, brushing Vanitas’ bangs from his face. Still, Vanitas didn’t flinch or back off, as if he’d been anticipating it. “This is really weird, but really cool, too.”

“Hn,” Vanitas agreed, and apparently the curiosity got the better of him, because he grabbed Sora’s arm in the dip of his elbow in a loose, curling grasp, circling Sora as he held him in place. “Weird as shit.”

Sora endured the inspection before bouncing in place and doing the same to Vanitas, who held still which much easier grace. “So this is what I look like to others, huh?”

“Like an idiot,” Vanitas grinned.

“Like a _ hero,” _Sora corrected.

_ “How?” _ Riku blurted, sounding strangled.

Both of them looked at him and Riku felt strangely dizzy. It was always like that when even Roxas and Ventus were in the same room, except Vanitas and Sora not only standing next to each other but actively acting different was sending him into a mass of confusion. Sure, he was willing to suspend disbelief when he personally knew a talking mouse, a duck, and a dog and lived in a mystical tower that prepared his meals daily in a purple poof of magic and sparkles, but convincing a lifetime of friendship that the brown-haired-blue-eyed boy was _ not _his friend was proving difficult.

“Uhm,” Sora crossed his arms, doing his little side-to-side head nod he always did when he was trying to puzzle out a question, but seeing _ that _familiar tick on Vanitas was bewildering. Riku nearly pinched himself if he wasn’t positive that hearing Vanitas’ mocking laugh in Sora’s voice wouldn’t hurt something awful. “I don’t actually know. Vanitas?”

For once, his abashed, petulant scowl was cute. Riku wondered if he was just biased because it was on Sora’s face now. “How was _ I _supposed to know the old man had put a trap on the book? He shouldn’t hide it somewhere so obvious if he doesn’t want people to get curious.” Vanitas sniffed, crossing his arms and looking pointedly away from Riku and Sora.

“You were snooping,” Riku deadpanned, pinching the bridge of his nose. Yen Sid already had a healthy distrust of both Vanitas _ and _ Sora — knowing they’d gone poking in his private library was not going to earn them any favors, and Riku knew it had to be a tome out of that library because everything else in the tower was theirs to explore and wouldn’t be booby-trapped in the first place. “That door’s _ locked _for a reason, you know.”

“And we have keyblades,” Vanitas pointed out, like it was the most obvious thing in the world, which… it was. Riku glared back. Just because you had a magical key that could unlock anything in the world didn’t _ mean _you could use it willy-nilly, but Riku suspected this was a fundamental difference in morals, and he was already tired at the prospect of arguing it.

Sora grinned, hands swinging up to fold behind his head, “It’s fine! It’ll go away on its own— probably.”

_ Probably, _he said. Riku groaned, burying his face in his hands. 

“Don’t be such a drama queen,” Vanitas snapped, pulling his arms out from Sora’s jacket as if it bothered him. He re-crossed his arms, the jacket barely hanging off his shoulders now, tilting his chin up. “No harm done, we’ll go back to normal, and _ I,” _his lips curled up in feline satisfaction, “can have some fun.”

As if it’d suddenly occurred to Sora what the ramifications of someone still-’_ probably’ _-evil in his body could be, he turned to peer at Vanitas with furrowed brows, tilting his head. “You’re not gonna do anything bad in my body, right?”

Vanitas cocked his brow. “Are _ you _gonna do anything good in mine?”

Sora considered this. Riku despaired at being stuck between two identical pranksters. “I don’t know,” he mused, tapping his chin, “I was just gonna be myself.”

As Vanitas gagged and promptly informed Sora that he was the quintessential example of a snotty do-gooder and that he absolutely couldn’t allow Sora to ruin his reputation with this, Riku loosely grasped Sora-in-Vanitas by the wrist, tugging him along. Vanitas naturally followed, both of them engrossed in their argument on the definition of acts of goodwill and evil and what exactly the other could do.

“Don’t _ help _people in my body!” Vanitas snapped, keeping pace as Sora paid no attention to where Riku was dragging them. Riku was grateful that everyone was either training or out on a mission, and that the tower was for the most part empty. All the thousand-steps leading up to Yen Sid’s rooms seemed even longer than usual, and Riku suspected the magical tower was mocking him. 

“Don’t _ hurt _ people in mine!” Sora snapped back, with the same level of indignation and irritation, so that they both sounded the same. Then he grinned. “Don’t _ help _people in my body!” He mocked.

Vanitas stiffened, then leaned in close. “Don’t _ hurt _people in mine!” Except, instead of sounding like Sora, which he could do, he chose to pitch it several notches higher. Riku groaned.

“We’re _ not _doing that,” he said.

Vanitas looked at Riku like he’d forgotten he was there, or likely had chosen to just ignore his existence, but then he grinned evilly. “We’re _ not _doing that.”

“Don’t,” Riku warned with a glare.

_ “Don’t,” _ Sora said back, bouncing in place, and of course— _ of course _they’d team up against him. Sora loved nothing more than to play games and Vanitas loved nothing more than to taunt someone. He’d handed the ammunition to them wrapped like a shiny red christmas gift and now he was paying for it. 

“We’re going to find that book, and we’re going to undo this,” Riku said pointedly. Vanitas mocked the first half and Sora the second, and it was only the grace of a lifetime of friendship that kept Riku from rising to the bait, either verbally or physically. 

They finally crested the hundred-step staircase to find Yen Sid’s grand door.

Of course, it was ajar, and the old wizard was nowhere to be seen. Riku slumped against the doorjamb, dragging his hand down his face.

“Oh, come off it,” Vanitas groaned, “it’s not that big a damn deal. It’s a _ spell, _that shit wears off eventually.” If Riku didn’t know better, he’d think Vanitas was reluctant to return, but that couldn’t possibly be it.

“And if one of you has to go on a mission?” Riku pressed, turning around to fix them both with a steel look. He’d gotten good at those. A lifetime of coaxing Sora down from the tops of paopu trees and off his porch —because _ no _Sora stop sneaking into my window the front door’s unlocked—had given Riku quite a bit of practice at it, and he found it served him well as a Master.

Unfortunately, Sora could only be convinced to change with honey not vinegar, and Vanitas barely considered Riku someone worth noticing let alone addressing as Master. 

“We’ll be _ fine,” _Vanitas insisted.

“Yeah!” Sora bounced in place, and summoned his keyblade, Kingdom Key flashing into existence with the usual trailing spectrals of spiralled light. “See? Same keyblade, no problem!”

“Honestly, he has it better,” Vanitas bitched, “why’re you so scrawny?” Vanitas flexed his arm, poking at the small swell of bicep.

Riku stuttered on a laugh-turned-cough.

Sora colored, which was an interesting expression on Vanitas’ face. “That’s not my fault! I just don’t bulk up. I can still kick your ass flat!”

“Oh?” Vanitas’ eyes seemed to glitter with interest, and he leaned in too close, but Sora was used to heckling bulls and he didn’t back down or lean back, chin stubbornly stuck out, “Wanna prove that?”

“You _ bet.” _

Riku tried hard not to repeatedly smack his forehead into the doorjamb. He already had a headache forming as was. 

Sora-in-Vanitas snagged Vanitas-in-Sora by the wrist and ran down the staircase, calling over his shoulder for Riku to follow as Vanitas started squabbling about _ touching me, stop touching me! _

Riku resigned himself to his fate and trudged down the stairs, wondering if Kairi would be willing to play referee again. It was all too obvious that they both ran circles around him. 

He tried to, for his dignity, at least pretend this fact bothered him at all. 

It didn’t.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter | _oathbreaker
> 
> Vanitas is definitely taking advantage of Riku being wrapped around Sora's little finger. Riku's soft like that, unfortunately for him. Also Roxas and Ventus are very, very different but Riku's kinda dense and has tunnel vision so he just. doesn't notice things like that


End file.
